Castles in Moonlight

Have plenty more castles!

Wednesday, August 23, 2017

I think this was Cologne....

We went into the town by bus and walked through the streets to get to the Cathedral. This was a bridge turning to let a boat pass by. One man (blue shirt on the other side) would put the chain across, and control the turning of the bridge. then take the chains down. Nice job!

The woman there is the tour guide. She is French and was fun! Lots of information and humor.

The buildings were mainly owned by people who did leather work. So the very upper parts of the roofs had windows that stayed open They were drying out the leathers upstairs. Later when they weren't doing much leather work during the wars, they stored food up there and had to keep the air moving so wheat wouldn't catch fire.

The art work was wonderful everywhere!

In shops,

and on the buildings.

A jewelry shop,

bakery,

clocks,

and goose pate!

Cute goose!

First pictures of the cathedral!

Across from the Cathedral...

The front door.

Inside, it was good luck to touch the dog on one statue.

This is the biggest clock you will every see up close. It was built over 400 years ago! From floor to ceiling were moving parts, people, the moon in it's different phases, and the biggest wheel at the bottom had every day of the year on it, and all the saints birthdays. We were there at noon to see all the moving parts and listen to the chimes and bells!

The 2 figures on either side of the regular clock, one rang a bell, the other turned over an hour glass. Below that were charitures that moved around.

The top circle here showed the signs of zodiac.

The black ball was the moon. It was in the "new moon" time of the month, so it was black. More figures that moved just above it.

A skeleton ran a bell, as the man would go through his life as a young person up to an old man.

This is some of the main part of the clock!

This is in front of the largest wheel with all the days on it.

Now the clock stopped about 150 to 200 years ago. No one knew how to fix it! The makers were all long gone! They hired this expert clock maker/repair person to fix it. Any guesses on how long it took him to get it going!?

5 YEARS!!!!

The portrait was painted showing him holding his head as he tried to figure it out. Amazing clock! Worth going to see and hear it ring and watch all the moving parts.

I don't go to cathedrals much, but that one was the most interesting because of this clock. 400 years old and the most complex thing I think in the world. Let's hope it doesn't stop again, because that guy is long gone now!!!

So what are you making that will last way past your time on earth? Quilts for me! Art will always be looked for to tell the future people what we were doing now. So make art and leave it for the next generations to wonder, "What the hell was she thinking?!"